Auckland Transport Operations Centre

What a day to visit the Auckland Transport Operations Centre (ATOC)! The day started with the news that a truck had rolled and caught on fire on the Harbour Bridge in the early morning, causing serious delays to rush hour traffic. Auckland Transport people put plan B into action so that we could still visit, as the incident team was using the room we were to be hosted in. We were met by Julie, our school's AT Community Transport Coordinator, and Toni from ATOC. We learnt about the cameras that help monitor the motorways. Did you know that ATOC is responsible for ensuring motorists have a safe and smooth journey not only on the 7500km of Auckland roads , but also for a large portion of the North. They monitor intersections, events, traffic lights with over 3000 cameras. They deal with the dynamic lanes on Whangaparaoa Road too. We were then taken in to the operations room, walking past the rows of people monitoring traffic. From the training room we could look through the glass windows and see the wall of screens. We saw the SCATS team (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System) who can adjust traffic lights to ensure smooth traffic flow, and the team who manages the PTZ (pivot tilt zoom) cameras. We saw them zoom in on the team who were cleaning up the Harbour Bridge and checking for damage. Toni said the ATOC team deal with over 40,000 incidents each year - big and small - that must keep them busy! Thank you ATOC team for trying to deal with the many traffic issues in Auckland and doing your best to keep us safe and moving. We finished with a quiz and a picnic in the sun at Smales Farm.